Contributing Back to the System

We like to think we're special or first, that we live in important times. No one wants to think they're ordinary, living in a boring time period.

But maybe this period really is special. Perhaps for the first time in human history, the common person possesses a skillset incongruent with the world they inhabit. Put another way, most people don't have the skillset to produce all the perks they enjoy on a daily basis. I don't know how a cell phone works—do you? AI and machine learning enable a complex economy and supply chain of which I have no idea how to build or operate. We show up to a grocery store, and food is there. We click a button on a website, and supplies arrive at our front doorstep the next day.

What does this mean? Do we have some responsibility to contribute back for this free ride we are getting?

Looking up Broadway Street in Nashville, Tennessee - May 2022

In ancient times, every human needed specific skills to survive. If a man couldn't hunt or protect the tribe from danger, he was no use to the tribe, and thus probably reassigned to something else in order to contribute. He may even have been banished, which was as good as a death sentence. Either way, he likely didn't reproduce much. It was the strong and competent who passed on their genes. This went on for thousands of years—think about it: we are the progeny of the survivors, the ones who solved problems and survived disasters. We are the inheritors of the most talented and capable humans.

Today, I benefit from technology of which I understand very little. I use my cell phone daily, and I could not tell you the basics of how it works. Advanced technology powers our financial and economic systems—I pay for everything with a credit card for instance—and I do not fully understand how it all works. When something ails me, I visit the doctor, who can diagnose and break down whatever health issue I'm facing and prescribe a treatment that can alleviate it. I don't understand the nuances of how any of that works. But I benefit from it. I live a fuller, healthier, more fulfilling and enjoyable life because of the work that so many have done. Do I deserve it?

Was I not simply born in the right place at the right time? I don't mean to imbibe guilt; we should be able to freely enjoy the perks of living in 2025 without shame. But we should recognize how good our lot in life is. We benefit from modern miracles all around us. Our lives are easier today than they would have been 10, 50, 100, 1,000 years ago. What do we give in return?

Charming Little Havana in Miami, built by a strong community - June 2022

We benefit from the system. It's our responsibility to give back to it, in some way, depending on our unique circumstances. It can be directly through our jobs—custodians literally clean up our community areas, after all. Some people work as electrical engineers or teachers or software developers or construction workers and literally build the system. It could be through any activity outside of our work—volunteering, donating money, raising awareness about causes. But it feels fair to give something, in some way.

We are part of a system, part of a global community, and we benefit from being a part of that system. We are the system. It's only fair to add to it, to help try to make it better for everyone else, and for those who come after us. After all, it feels good to be a part of something. It feels good to improve, to win. We can feel these things when we buy into global consciousness. When we work towards uniting humanity. When we inspire change in others. When we truly believe that we can change the world.

[Insert your Name here]'s Fable

It can feel daunting to “find your purpose.” Storytelling can help us see the big picture of our lives.

You can try this: write a short fable about your life. It won't be complete because you're still alive, but that's the point. Keeping it to 5 sentences or 300 words ensures you stick to the most impactful parts of your life. What would you write? How will it end? 

Here’s an example:

A boy was born in California to two loving parents. He was by all accounts ordinary, but love and fate intervened, and his life became extraordinary. Through sports, the boy learned the value of earnest and teamwork. He grew up and became a man. He traveled the world, seeking adventure. When he lived in Africa he met many people from all different backgrounds, learning the vital importance of education. It was here he received his vision to change the world through education. He moved to China, working as a teacher. He lost love, and learned family was the most important thing in his life. So he returned home, and there two extraordinary things happened. First, he met the love of his life, forever understanding that love, time and health are the most important things in life. From his travels, he realized this was true for all humans. Second, he used this abundance of love and his unique perspective to start TAV, to bring these lessons to life, and to prove to the world we can change it, adopting a global, universal perspective. For humanity is one species, living together on one planet in the vast cosmos, and it is much better to live united, pursuing change for the good of all. TAV was only moderately successful; the man never became rich or famous. But it was one of the early seeds for humanity’s planet-wide thought revolution. And, after all, as he had learned from his travels, TAV helped the man pursue the most important things in what would be a successful, fulfilling life: an abundance of love, in good health, for all the time of his long life.

Writing a fable forces you to see your own life from an outside perspective. And it can clarify the big important things: what makes you happy, what gives you satisfaction? How will you use your time in this one life? Perhaps this helps you determine your purpose in life. All that’s left is determining how best to finish the story.

First Contact Question

“If you could have a gigantic billboard anywhere with anything on it—metaphorically speaking, getting a message out to millions or billions—what would it say and why?” Tim Ferriss’ billboard question is well constructed and elicits insightful answers, but I think there’s a step further: “Aliens have landed--as humanity’s chosen liaison, you're tasked with first contact. What do you say? What’s the single most meaningful thing they could say to us?”

The alien question raises the stakes. It’s not just a proclamation of your personal philosophy, but an event with profound consequences. It's a contemplation about our place in the cosmos, our meaning and purpose in this universe. Such an exchange between two civilizations would carry implications for all of humanity, potentially Earth's entire biosphere. The alien question also encourages a broader perspective—what wisdom would an outsider deem essential for us to hear? It's an invitation for commentary on "everything," on all that we know and experience.

The Antarctic is another world

Imagine… you are chosen as humanity’s liaison. They want someone ‘ordinary’ to represent humanity, and yet also someone unique and extraordinary, because, after all, that’s what you are. The government takes you to the nearest airport, where a large private plane awaits. You are left to yourself as the plane transports you down, down the globe to the South Pole, stopping to refuel a few times. After many hours, the pilot's voice over the intercom informs you of the descent to Jack F. Paulus Skiway. Mere minutes later, you’re deplaning, riding in a truck to a huge alien structure—how can that fly, you wonder. Silvery beings, somehow distinct from the surrounding snow, await outside. Your passenger door is opened; you get out, and begin walking toward these strange sentinels. You stop some ten feet from them, and wait. What do they say?

The location of Antarctica also adds some depth to the thought experiment. The South Pole would be an ideal meeting point because it’s uninhabited and generally understood to be unowned. The Antarctic Treaty of 1959 ensures the continent remains a place of peaceful, scientific research. A rendezvous here would send the right signal to the world: instead of aliens landing on the White House lawn, in Tiananmen Square or outside the Kremlin walls, the South Pole serves as a neutral meeting point. And Antarctica is a faraway, foreign place to almost all humans.

(Peaceful) leviathans of the deep abound

The implications of this exchange would be profound. Imagine how it would impact global politics and society as a whole. Regan pondered this in his speech to the United Nations in 1987: “I occasionally think how quickly our differences worldwide would vanish if we were facing an alien threat from outside this world.” What would we learn about ourselves through such an exchange? What would we say to the visitors? If we sought to convey our values, intentions, and questions, what would we say? Would our fundamental understanding of our place and purpose in the universe change? Would our concept of meaning itself change?

I believe aliens would communicate something along the lines of “you are not alone. You understand very little of this complex, incredible thing called reality. Be humble. Live with love. And we will show you the way.” Humanity is destined to make its own mark, regardless of any extraterrestrial species. But it sure would be comforting to know there’s someone else benevolent out there, willing to help, showing us the most important thing is to not feel alone.

The End of (Phone) Addiction

How can I claim this when my metrics are worse? Because the end is in sight, and momentum is on my side. I’m not even prioritizing phone use in my 2025 resolutions. Here’s where I’m at. On October 11th I wrote about fighting addiction to my phone. My daily average screen time was 4 hours and 21 minutes, and I averaged 72 pickups per day.

Based on Apple’s woefully limited dashboards from the past 4 weeks, my numbers actually increased by about 9% since then: 4 hours and 44 minutes of screen time, and 86 pickups per day. But there are some interesting things to note. 

First, I got a new phone on October 15th. Setting up a new device likely made some of this wonky. But I also doubled down on my “Phone Rules.”

• Live phone-free until 12pm every day, with the following exceptions

• I still use my phone as an alarm clock —> I got an alarm clock, so this became irrelevant

• I'll use my phone for meditation as part of my morning routine

• I can use Duolingo in the morning if I have downtime before work

• If I'm exercising, I get to listen to podcasts as my 'reward'

• I can listen to music at any time

Way of Life has useful dashboards that can export to Excel

I mostly adhered to this since I got my new phone, as you can see from this screenshot from my Way of Life app. And it reduced mental clutter. I’ve felt much more clarity over the past few months. It’s enabled me to focus on what matters to me. My phone was truly a tool, instead of a magic distraction device.

Getting my phone out of the bedroom was a big one. With a no light alarm clock adorning my bedside table, I was able to institute, and uphold, a phone ban in my bedroom. I also banned my phone from the bathroom, and guess what, I spend less time in there. Limiting the places I used my phone cut down on my usage.

But my usage increased right, so how can I say I cut down? Because Apple will also break down your most used apps in a given period. Google Maps routinely featured in my top three, and that doesn’t count—I’m driving, not using my phone. Spotify was also one of my most used apps, probably because I don’t turn off the screen while listening to music or a podcast. In this sense, that isn’t true ’screen time’ either. So really I only average about 4 hours of screen time per day.

Sometimes it feels like our phones controls us (London, 2023)

I was worried these 4 hours were hijacked by social media, as I get sucked into Instagram’s feed after posting my daily photo. But that app was never in the top 3 of my used apps any week, and my overall time spent on that platform was minuscule in the grand scheme of things. Whew! (Still, to better attack that vulnerability, I’m going to start batching my posts from my computer at a weekly cadence, to completely bypass the Instagram app.)

My real problem, my most used app, was Brave. I’m still surfing. However, I browse the web in my free time, toward the end of the day, when I’m relaxing at home. I’m not distracted by my phone throughout the majority of my day when I’m trying to accomplish things. I feel very much in control of my mobile device. I feel better, I somehow feel cleaner. And that’s really made all the difference.

These computers can be dangerous, they can distract us from what’s really important in life. Bumping into each other while looking down into our hands is not a good look. We can do better. My top advice? Figure out some basic “rules” for using your phone. Limit using it for a small number of activities, like calls, texts, photos, maps and audio. And strive to be more aware about your habits, improving slowly over time. I’m not quite there yet, but I feel I’m on the road to attention recovery. And as the attention obscurity fades, I look around and see a big, beautiful amazing world.

Sports Betting and Critical Thinking

I watch a lot of sports. Probably about 4-5 hours per week, depending on the season and time of year. Yet my relationship to sports has evolved. Recently, I've pondered two particular aspects of our modern American sports culture: betting and fandom.

Sports betting has exploded in popularity in recent years. It also seems to be the one vice I don't have, so I'm pretty foreign to this world. But I wondered: does sports betting help us think critically? You'll hear bettors rationalize their bets: "X beat Y by 3 points, Y beat Z by 10 points, so X is going to beat Z." I'd wager a lot of gamblers employ more critical thinking in their sports betting than in any other part of their daily lives. Because there's a monetary interest inherent in the activity, they think critically through the factors that influence their bets.

Maybe this changes as gambling devolves into an addiction, I don't know—that's outside the scope of this piece. But there's definitely some legitimate critical thinking going on within this world. I asked my friends J, C and T some basic questions about how they bet (slightly edited for clarity):

Biggest factors you consider when placing a bet?

J: “I am a trend guy… If there isn’t consistency I don’t take it. There are subscriptions now that have stats…and that stuff is wild. I use less of my gut and favoritism and try to focus on the facts”

C: “Where they are playing, who is home who is away, if one team has a guy that’s been playing well or not. I always take their records into consideration but more so care about the spread/‘the line’ of that particular game. And lastly obviously gut.”

T: “Biggest factors are based on the teams I watch regularly so I have a good handle on how they are playing and what stats certain players are trending at. I look at factors such as stats and feeling as well; it’s a balancing act. Really depends on how much I’ve watched that player/team.”

Your top advice? 

J: “Don’t gamble what you can’t afford. I put $100 in January and I am up to $300. I don’t make this an income type of system. I do it for the thrill of making any game that’s on a little bit more exciting. If things go right I make a small amount.”

C: “Never wager outside of your means. Do it for fun. Betting is just an added layer of entertainment not a means of income.”

T: “Biggest advice is to start small; pick sports you enjoy watching.”

This is a small, homogenous sample size. Notice these are all men. Their average age was 33 years old. But it’s clear from their answers that none of my friends are addicted to gambling. All three of them are obviously thinking critically about their bets, even if they all see it as simply entertainment. They all mention some role for instinct or ‘feeling,’ but either consciously try to minimize it or see it as one part of a balanced approach. All three of them stress financial responsibility. 

With the sheer amount of content online and the rise of disinformation and misinformation, critical thinking is increasingly important in today's world. To operate as a functional society, we must be able to consider information, consciously evaluate its truthfulness, relevance, and purpose, and rationally understand why we believe something to be true. Literacy, and digital literacy, are key components to coexisting together in a big, noisy world. Maybe sports betting provides some practice.

Of course, sports betting strays from the simple evaluation of facts to the murky waters of prediction. And I'm not arguing that sports betting is the perfect encapsulation of critical thinking. But can it serve as a microcosm? Maybe it's an (entertaining) vehicle that helps us get there? All I'm saying is, the pitfalls and consequences of sports gambling are well known. But we often throw the baby out with the bathwater. Maybe it can contribute, in some small way, to stronger critical thinking skills among the population.

Considering Boarding Anxiety

I felt anxious while waiting to board our flight back home from Phoenix. I kept asking myself, “why do I feel this way? I have a seat on this flight. We’re all going to get on, the flight is on time, we're in no rush. We have nowhere to be but home after this. It will all be fine.”

And I wondered...

Maybe it's a biological thing. Maybe we get nervous when we’re in crowded spaces with a lot of people. We aren't designed to live in hordes after all, but in small groups. I wonder if people in other cultures, from places like India and China that have huge populations, get as nervous or panicky as say Americans, where there are fewer people and more space. Americans live spread out, most in single family houses as opposed to apartments.

I thought back to my time in China, where there are huge crowds and many citizens behave aggressively. It was as if they learned they wouldn’t get served or seated if they didn't fight for it. I remember senior citizens cutting to the front of the line and physically pushing people out of their way. But perhaps those elderly people experienced perilous times I couldn’t imagine, like during the Cultural Revolution in the 20th century (when there was tremendous societal upheaval). I’m sure I would behave similarly if it meant the difference between eating and starving.

Such cultural differences might be our biggest barrier besides language to global consciousness. We’re closer to achieving instant universal translation through AI, the internet and our phones, but are we any better at understanding each other’s backgrounds, the cultural climates from which we’re from that influence our behavior?

When I tell others about my time in South Africa and China, I know they don’t truly get it. Understandably— they weren’t there. I can try to convey what it was like, to describe the setting as accurately as possible, but unless they have had some relevant experience somewhere similar, my story is completely lost on them. It’s the same for me regarding anything I haven’t experienced. I can’t understand what it’s like to live in Uzbekistan because I’ve never been there, not even to that part of the world. My closest approximation would be Russia or the edges of Tibet in western China. I’m sure those places are radically different than Uzbekistan.

However, I believe these cultural differences are a good thing for our species. It’s as if we’re one living organism, and diversity of experience helps broaden our overall understanding of the planet, of the universe, and of reality itself. More variance enables us to become more knowledgeable, more prepared, stronger. Cultural difference is not a blocker to global consciousness, as long as we maintain the practice of consideration.

Our super power as humans is our ability to think and see beyond what's right in front of us, our ability to consider. It’s how we’ve planned successful hunting expeditions as roaming tribes in Africa; how we’ve designed and built villages, cities, kingdoms and countries, how we build toward a better future. It’s a uniquely human trait, but innateness doesn’t guarantee use or performance. We have to exert our abilities. Fast sprinters who don’t train don’t win races.

Therefore we must deliberately practice consideration. Our ability to consider circumstances beyond our own is our salvation. It is what makes global consciousness possible, which is another way of saying, it makes coexistence across the planet possible. It makes sustainability possible, peace possible, prosperity possible. Our world is already a paradise for us and all other living things in it; our great responsibility is to extend the flame of consciousness, for our entire species and our entire miraculous world—the only place in the known universe to harbor life. It’s a miracle that we’re here, together, right now, in this particular place. We should act accordingly, with a healthy dose of consideration.

Maybe it’s incumbent upon me to brush aside my anxiety when boarding a flight from Phoenix to San Jose, to understand everyone is trying to accomplish the same thing: arrive safely at our destination. Maybe it’s an opportunity for me to exert some consideration and a reminder to think about the big picture. I won’t remember this moment ten years from now, but how well I practice consideration will surely unlock a better future, not just for me but for all I encounter.